Boston Landmarks Orchestra Launches 2016 Summer Season Tonight

Inspired by the people, artists, and heritage of a great city, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra (LO) under the direction of Music Director Christopher Wilkins, and Executive Director Jo Frances Meyer announces its 2016 season of free concerts at the DCR's Hatch Shell at the Esplanade.

"Universal access and summertime fun lie at the heart of all Boston Landmarks Orchestra programs. Children, families, cultural organizations, and first-time concertgoers all have an important role to play," says Wilkins. "The 2016 season is also the most interactive in our history, as members of our community are active participants in almost every program."

Executive Director Jo Frances Meyer added, "our 2015 season was so extraordinary in every way that I confess I was having a hard time imagining how 2016 could possibly be as good or better. My worries, however, were misplaced. Our incomparably creative Music Director Christopher Wilkins has outdone himself in planning a 2016 season that promises to be every bit as imaginative, inspiring, artistically excellent and inclusive as any season yet."

Free Hatch Shell concerts are held every Wednesday evening (7 p.m.) from tonight, July 13 through August 31, 2016. Partner organizations for the 2016 season include the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Back Bay Chorale, and the HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands. LO brings smaller, more intimate concerts to several Greater Boston neighborhoods, including Pinebank Promontory in Jamaica Plain (July 10; 6 p.m.) and others to be announced.

Youth focused programming this season includes a pop-inspired composition performed by young 'All Stars' from East Boston's ZUMIX, under the guidance of 2016 composer-in-residence, Gonzalo Grau. Young performers from Camp Harbor View, Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, North End Music and Performing Arts Center, and Conservatory Lab Charter School perform alongside the orchestra's members, who are among the leading professional musicians in New England.

For more information visit landmarksorchestra.org.

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2016 SEASON PROGRAMS:

JULY 13 - RHAPSODY IN GREEN - (Opening Night)
Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor

In partnership with Conservatory Lab Charter School, Revolution of Hope, Roxbury; Boston University Tanglewood Institute; Mass Audubon; and The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Scotland.

Music of the wilds and the countryside. Tan Dun's Secret of Wind and Birds mimics sounds and colors found in nature, incorporating birdsong activated by Audience members on their cell phones. Michael Gandolfi's tribute to a garden in Scotland follows a tradition first established by Respighi, who introduced recorded birdsong into concert music in 1924 with his brilliant Respighi Pines of Rome. Rain date: July 14; Kresge Auditorium at MIT is the rain location for July 14

Vaughan Williams The Wasps Overture
Tan Dun Secret of Wind and Birds
Copland Music for Movies
Gandolfi The Garden of Cosmic Speculation - Part I
Respighi The Pines of Rome

JULY 20 - PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor
In partnership with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Co-hosted by Peggy Fogelman, director

Peggy Fogelman, Director of the Gardner Museum, co-hosts an evening honoring the life and passions of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Highlights from the museum's collection and images from the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA-projected above the orchestra-are shown in coordination with the music. Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is performed in Ravel's masterful orchestration. Rain Date July 21; Kresge Auditorium at MIT is the rain location for July 21.

Sung Rockwell Reflections
Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition
Offenbach Intermezzo and Barcarolle from The Tales of Hoffman
Coolidge Isabella
Loeffler Divertissement espagnole
Falla Spanish Dance No. 1 from La vida breve

JULY 27 - VERDI & VALKYRIES
Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor
Jane Eaglen, soprano, One City Choir, Back Bay Chorale (Scott Allen Jarrett, music director) and the North End Music and Performing Arts Children's Choir.

One of the greatest dramatic singers of her generation, Jane Eaglen, soprano, headlines a powerhouse program. Highlights from Wagner's Ring include The Ride of the Valkyries and the dramatic final scene of the cycle. The stirring Anvil Chorus precedes the New England premiere of a major work by Verdi, Libera me, which five years later he transformed into the dramatic conclusion of the Requiem. Rain date: July 28; Kresge Auditorium at MIT is the rain location for July 28.

Puccini Prelude to Act I of Edgar
Puccini Opening, Madrigal, and Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut
Verdi Anvil Chorus from Il trovatore
Verdi Libera me, Domine (original version,1869) New England
Premiere
Wagner Das Rheingold selections
Wagner The Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre
Wagner Siegfried's Death, Funeral March, and Immolation Scene from Die
Götterdämmerung

AUGUST 3 - FILM NIGHT (start time TBA)
This evening we give the orchestra a well-deserved night off, and screen the classic 1949 movie musical On the Town, starring Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Ann Miller. The film is based on the 1944 Broadway musical by Leonard Bernstein-inspired by his ballet Fancy Free, which Landmarks Orchestra performs on August 17. Hit songs such as 'New York, New York' and Kelly's iconic dancing are among the highlights. Pack your picnic for an old-school Hollywood musical film under the stars. No rain date.

AUGUST 10 - LANDMARKS LOLLAPALOOZA
Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor
Jayne West, soprano
In partnership with ZUMIX, Longy Summer Academy, and members of the HONK! Festival

An open-air festival of sundry styles and celebrated classics. Musical treats from Gershwin to Adams to Grieg accompany the great Fifth Symphony of Tchaikovsky. All-Stars from East Boston's ZUMIX unveil their new pop-inspired creation. The night comes to a fitting close in collaboration with the one-and-only HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands. Rain date: August 11/Rain location for August 11 TBA

Adams Lollapalooza
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5
Gershwin Strike Up the Band Overture
Grau Elements (World Premiere)
Grieg Peer Gynt (excerpts)

AUGUST 17 - FOOTLOOSE AND FANCY FREE
Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor
Yo-El Cassell, choreographer, Ryan Edwards, percussionist/composer, Patrick Green, composer, Brian Mirage, dancer, Camp Harbor View, Yawkey Club of Roxbury, Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston, One City Youth Movement, BAJUCOL, Sayat Nova Dance Company, and 360°.

Movers and shakers from across the city converge on the Esplanade for a celebration of American and international dance. Leonard Bernstein's Fancy Free takes pride of place in an original interpretation by Yo-El Cassell and Boston-based performers. The youth from area Boys and Girls Clubs will "shake the Shell" along with outstanding companies of Armenian and Latin American dancers. Rain location for August 17 TBA.

Rodgers On Your Toes: "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue"
Skalkottas Greek Dances
Needham Urban Sprawl
Grau Dance for Orchestra (world premiere)
Avetisyan Festive Armenia (arr. Roustom)
Traditional Vasbouragan (arr. Roustom)
Edwards/Greene New Work (world premiere)
Bernstein Fancy Free

AUGUST 24 - LONGWOOD SYMPHONY
Longwood Symphony Orchestra | Ronald Feldman, Music Director

The annual performance at the Hatch Shell by Boston's medical community orchestra, always an innovator in programming and community engagement. Promoting music as a healing art, the Longwood Symphony serves the Greater Boston area through performances and programming related to their professions. No rain date.

Mozart The Magic Flute Overture
Kaska The Wizard of Menlo Park
Dvorák Symphony No. 9 'From the New World'

AUGUST 31 - Rodgers and Hart's The Boys from Syracuse
A Concert Performance-with music and dance
In collaboration with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
Boston Landmarks Orchestra | Christopher Wilkins, conductor
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company | Steven Maler, director |
Yo-El Cassell, choreographer
A landmark Broadway musical from the swing era is reborn on the Esplanade. The Boys from Syracuse, based on Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, is often considered the finest of all Rodgers and Hart creations. Familiar songs include 'Falling in Love with Love,' 'Sing for Your Supper,' and 'This Can't Be Love.' This 'concert performance with dancing' marks only the 2nd professional performance of the inimitable big-band style original 1938 orchestrations.Rain date: September 1; Rain location for September 1 TBA.

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The Boston Landmarks Orchestra was founded in 2001 by conductor and community advocate Charles Ansbacher. The orchestra is comprised of many of the area's finest professional musicians. In its earliest years, the orchestra performed in such historically important settings as Fenway Park, the USS CONSTITUTION pier, Jamaica Pond, Franklin Park, Copley Square, Boston Common, and other landmark locations. Since 2007, its principal home has been at the DCR's Hatch Memorial Shell. For more history visit www.landmarksorchestra.org/About.html.??

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